LEFT VERSUS RIGHT

Whenever I read the names of famous left-handed people, I can't help wishing I were a lefty.

I'm right-handed but I'm strangely, unusually symmetrical. I keep getting invited to conferences of hypnotists and psychoanalysts. After I say I can't be put to sleep by a hypnotist, and some expert hypnotizes me, I simply obey. And lift my arm or do what they command.

They ask me questions;. After I answer, and they "wake" me, they say I am exactly, equally left brain and right brain. Apparently it's rare, and interesting -- I've read that left brain people are more creative, right brain are more successful in money making, and business.

Even so, as far as I'm concerned, the best, most creative guys throughout history, were lefties.

Do you want to know what Obama, a lefty, really thinks? Watch his hands.. Scientists say when lefties discuss things they feel positive about, they gesture with the left; they use their right hand for things that are negative. Right-handed people do the opposite.

Associating good things with the side of your dominant hand extends beyond just gestures. Researchers found if you’re right-handed, you’re more inclined to think, in general, that things on the right are good, while left-oriented things (people, images, whatever) are bad. Again, the converse is true for you lefties.

Does this mean that our bodies influence the way we think without our ever knowing anything about it?

Maybe Tea Partiers and Republicans have "Sinistrophobia?" It's the fear of left-handedness, or things -- anything -- on the left side. There's a national Left-Handed Day -- this year it landed on Friday August 13th. Friday the 13th frightens people who've got "Triskaidekaphobia" -- fear of the number 13.

(It might be interesting to do a poll on which guys in Congress have both "Sinis" and "Trisk" phobias -- maybe that's why they're such passionate NO-sayers.)

Aside from Obama, other left-handed presidents are Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, James A. Garfield, and Herbert Hoover. Other great lefty leaders include Mahatma Gandhi, Otto von Bismarck, King Louis XVI of France, Queen Victoria, (plus her left-handed successors -- King George VI, and Prince Charles).

Other major lefty leaders include Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Julius Caesar and Fidel Castro.

Lefties make up to about 15% of the world’s population and there is a probability of this number increasing. Why? Researchers say it might be testosterone -- it suppresses the growth of the left cerebral hemisphere and so as an embryo develops, more neurons migrate to the right hemisphere. (Maybe it's something to do with Viagra?)

The fact is, even nowadays, some parents and teachers discourage their kids from writing with the left hand -- force them to write with their right hand, punish them if they don't. In many societies (including ours) you don’t greet with the left hand -- it's seen as a form of disrespect.

Many of the foremost thinkers in the world are lefties -- Sir Isaac Newton, Aristotle, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Joan of Arc, Helen Keller, and Benjamin Franklin. Also Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain and Goethe, and Leonardo Da Vinci, and composers Mozart, Beethoven, and Paul McCartney.

Lefties in show biz -- it' s a wow list -- Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Keanu Reeves, Jay Leno, Lady Gaga, Oprah, Julia Roberts, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, and Chaplin, also the new kid Justin Bieber, and directors Spike Lee and James Cameron.

Top southpaws in sports: Lew Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Pele, Martine Navratilova, and Mike Tyson.

And don't forget Bill Gates is a lefty, also, Henry Ford and David Rockefeller.

Left-handed people have excelled in every field. I can't help thinking the most important most noteworthy people in the world are left handed ... Gee, I read someplace that Osama Bin laden's a lefty ...

Hey, being a righty is okay! I'm happy, being one. Take this test. Here's a link to take a test and find out about your brain. Don't cheat, don't hurry, do it carefully. Maybe you're equally a lefty-righty like me.

ART CONTEST

"Work of Art" was a cable realty show on Bravo that brought together two dozen artists and four critics.

Each week there was a different "make art" episode. One show was "make a junk sculpture." Each contestant was given $100 to spend and 48 hours to create something. Another show required the participants to use only a child's tools, like crayons, chalk, scissors and paste.

(I must say these assignments sound interesting. Painting is one of my hobbies -- the walls of my home are my gallery, family and friends are my audience.)

The prize was mentioned a few times -- the winner was going to get$100,000 and a show at the Brooklyn Museum. The show gathered 1.2 million viewers since the first airing in June.

Every week, one contestant was booted off the show with -- "Your work of art didn't work for us," spoken politely, elegantly by the beautiful hostess, China Chow.

The semi final show was 3 contestants. Each was given $5000 to go home and create whatever he or she wanted.

A 23-year-old, perky, skinny, energetic, articulate black artist, Abdi Farah, won the $100,000. His show can be at the Brooklyn Museum until October 17th.

Here's a self portrait Abdi painted,
Here's some of his sculptures.








If you are an artist working on a creative project, does this show, "Work of Art," fire you up? Would you want to be on this show? I find myself wondering what's happened to the artists who were booted off the show -- how do they feel? Are they still doing creative work?

"Work of Art" caused a sensation. The LA Times called it "piddle;" the Wall Street Journal, dismissed it. Some bloggers hailed the program for demystifying the artistic process, establishing that "anyone can create art." Other bloggers and critics said that what was produced was trash.

T-r-a-s-h -- how easily, how frequently that term is used in upper echelons of the art world. And yet the trash is sold for millions of dollars, generally after the artist is dead, long gone.

Do you have to die to win in the art world? What makes trash turn into great art? It looks odd? It looks like nothing? It's boring? Weird? Shocking?

The people in charge of this show have marvelous credits: Jerry Saltz, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated art critic for New York Magazine; Simon de Pury, one of the art world's most knowledgeable auctioneers; China Chow, a style plate model, actress, socialite, daughter of fashion designer, Tina Chow; co-producer Sarah Jessica Parker, who's become a major film actress, producer, celebrity. These four people picked the judges (all names' in the art world), and also raised the money to fund the project.

To me they sound like IN-ies -- chic people -- what we used to call the "Jet Set."

I guess that's what bothers me. The Art World has always seemed like an upper class, exclusive group who love, salute, and pay homage, pay enormous sums of money for things that don't touch me at all. Also, the art works that were created for the show seem ... well, interesting ... but not very special.

Even so, Abdi seems to be a talented, ambitious artist, who has worked as an artist most of his life. And winning this contest will undoubtedly launch him.

If the show is renewed next season, will it mean something to painters, and other artists? Will it be like American Idol -- inspiring thousands of hopefuls, as the other realty shows for dancers, chefs, hair stylists, and fashion designers seem to do?

Well, why not renew it? Why does this make me uneasy?

Maybe because winning isn't quite the right feeling for an artist, or the right thing for motivating creativity. The drive to create comes from something within a person that shouts, pushes, keeps banging on the doors of his mind, demanding to be expressed.

THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT BEAUTY (Video)

John Cullum and Emily Frankel discuss the value and importance of being "good-looking" -- how it affects your career.

In show business there are exceptions. John reminds Emily about what happened to her, how her life changed after after one audition.

Yes, these days, when it comes to getting a job in the business world, how you look is perhaps more important than education or intelligence. In theater and films it continues to be a combination of looks and drive.

John discusses various well-known actors and how their imperfections -- in terms of height, for instance -- affected them, and inspired them to work harder and expand their horizons.

TWO GUYS IN LIMBO

Congressman Charles Rangel is 80. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is 54. Both of them are in limbo, and to my eye, both of them are sort of doing The Limbo.

(It's a West Indian dance in which the dancer bends backwards to pass under a horizontal bar which is progressively lowered toward the ground.)

It's strenuous -- you've got to be limber and flexible, but both of these guys are gifted, mentally and physically, capable of adapting to any and all the challenges and exigencies of politics.

Rangel, tears in his eyes, is pleading with everyone who will listen, saying that he's got to have a hearing right now in congress, no matter what other issues (like war and unemployment) are on the on the agenda. He's demanding a chance to prove that he's not corrupt.

Rod Blagojevich, innocent-faced and fluffy-haired, has been limbo-ing for years. He's in great shape physically and superbly skilled in changing the subject -- proving that his critics and accusers live in glass houses and shouldn't be throwing stones -- proving that everything he's done was done to help the people of Illinois.

Blagojevich claims he is a hero to most people who live in Illinois, and Rangel's says he's loved by his constituents. Both men claim passionately they've done nothing wrong.

With appeals and the media (that loves to bring in celebrities outsiders with opinions), their guilt will be discussed, re-hashed, minimized, reduced to such an extent that we'll think --"hey leave the guy alone -- he's done a lot of work for the people --so he did a few things he shouldn't have done, but who hasn't done things they regret?"

Based on what has been written about Rangel (what he's accused of and what he's admitted doing), I know Rangel has used his political position to gain money and power. And I can say the same thing about Blagojevich.

Rangel admits that he made a couple of mistakes in filing taxes (he made the same mistake 28 times) but he proclaims that he's not corrupt, and he keeps listing his good deeds. Blagojevich is celebrating that he was found guilty on one count only -- confident that the other 23 counts can't be proved, certain that a new trial will be a mistrial, proclaiming over and over that he's done nothing wrong.

I'm declaring: Both these guys have done illegal, unethical things. Both are guilty.

I want them banished! I want both of them out of the news. I think Congressman Rangel should retire immediately -- go on a vacation for a year or so. I think Rod Blagojevich needs a new profession -- (even if he serves time in jail), he ought to work on a night club act -- as a famous ex-con, he could earn a good living telling his story.

Since Nixon, we've been developing a "look the other way" habit. Rarely, these days, are we shocked by lying, cheating, corrupt leaders.

We've been ignoring criminal behavior in businesses, banks, insurance companies, builders, ignoring it on Wall street, in hospitals, in institutions of higher education, and on and on goes the list.

Right now, we desperately need men and women in public office who are honest, who will not lie, cheat, or be corrupted -- definitely no limbo dancers -- more than anything else, we need men and women in our government whom we can trust.